Fleece

Wet Studio

I started cleaning my wet studio last night and by this afternoon had made considerable head way in there! Now I"m organizing supplies, stretching my art papers which were stored rolled tightly for the last two years and finding my dyes.

Goals for this week, aside from continiually working in the gardens, is to start skirting fleeces. Once that's done they will be washed and be sent immediately to the dye kettles - lots of natural dye colors. Photos to come soon.

Logwood dyed Jacob Fleece

Two different colors here Above: a grape color using logwood purple. Below: Dark Violet using logwood purple, the bottom fleece is the black AND the white areas of the fleece dyed and bundled together. It would be TOO much work to seperate out the black from the white in the fleece below, it would make a wonderfully mottled or varigated yarn. Available in my Etsy Boutique

Lock lenght is approximately 3 - 3.5 inches.


There are probably some double cuts left in this fleece, there shouldn't be much though I think the person doing the shearing might have been tired by the time he got to this ram, number 30 in the flock. There is also vegetable matter in this fleece which will come out during the carding process. Available in my Etsy Boutique

I've kept a portion of this fleece for myself and have carded it up already on my drum carder it is divine!

More Wool

The first batt blended, I love this cloud grey color it's the kind of color you see here on the prairie in late October into early December as the cold fronts slowly make their way here.

My first batt with this colorway. Greyish blues and greens with hints of lavender and sage.

I forget what this critter was, it was a sheep - maybe columbia I don't know I've had the wool on hand for close to ten years now. The staple was still of excellent quality and the luster - well yum! So I'm blending it with mohair and silk bombyx on my drum carder for art batts.

Logwood Purple

The dyed wool air drying out on the skirting table. This table is 4 x 16 feet, each section being 4 x 8 feet. This allows me to lay out a whole fleece and be selective in the skirting process.

I'm not sure why the color in the photo below came out so grayed as the wool wasn't this color! This was pre-rinsing. The shot above is after rinsing and while the wool is drying out on the skirting table.
White Jacob fleece, well mostly, before the mordant vat.

I've been working on this Jacob fleece for a couple of days now and I have to say the purple turned out devine! I can't wait to card some of this up and give it a spin on the ole spinning wheel. I'll have to dye some silk carrier rods to go with for creating a small bit of art yarn for a yet to be determined project - say like faerie hair! I have more fleece in an alum vat and will put it on to dye tomorrow.